FR>   I kind of miss the courtesy titles of "Mr.," 
 FR> "Mrs.," "Miss," or "Ms."
 FR>   Nowadays, we're all so friendly that "Dear 
 FR> Chuck," is a common salutation.  Although I noticed 
 
The main reason for that is not knowing whether a woman is married or not, 
and not wanting to lose a potential client by using "miss" to someone married 
or "mrs" to someone single, and the same thing with not wanting to use "ms" 
to a man or "Mr" to a woman.  With so many names being given to unexpected 
genders (Michael Learned is a woman, Ashley Hamilton is a man) it's the least 
potentially client losing greeting to simply use the name.  I don't like it 
myself.  I find myself feeling very uncomfortable greeting a client "Dear 
Chuck" without having a casual relationship with him.  But I ran across the 
other problem again last week, when I addressed a client that I know only as 
B. Estevez (so I couldn't start the letter "Dear B.") as "Dear Mr Estevez" (I 
tossed a coin) only to get an angry phone call from a decidedly female voice 
about being addressed as "Mr" - despite the fact that I tried to soothe her 
feathers by explaining myself, I get less money from a client that is unhappy 
than I do from one who thinks I'm wonderful.  (Basic business fact # 561)
--- Maximus 2.01wb
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